a lifetime of love and happiness
by LiveLaughLovex
Summary: The wedding of Caleb Haas and Shelby Wyatt shows their former Quantico classmates that they've all ended up exactly where they're meant to be. Sequel to who you love (and who loves you back), forever (you have changed my life for the better), my today and all of my tomorrows, and a place in your heart that you never knew was empty.


**Author's Note: This takes place six months into Alex's pregnancy. I'm planning on writing the delivery/early days of parenthood soon, but writing Caleb and Shelby's wedding was also something I wanted to do, so that's what this is (hence the title). I also want to say that I do not know much about how law enforcement agencies deal with pregnancies. The information I found online was contradictive in some ways, so I drew more from television shows than anything else. So, if you have much more experience than I do, then please ignore any errors. That's life experience I don't have. Ironically, so is pregnancy, but that's an entirely different thing.**

 **Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.**

 ******************A &R******************

Special Agent Alex Booth tapped her capped pen impatiently against the documents she was skimming, shaking her head when the information provided proved to be impertinent to the case she and her partner were attempting to build against a local judge they believed to be responsible for his mistress's murder. Perhaps the man had been right when he'd told her she'd never be able to uncover enough to put him away. At the moment, it was proving difficult to find anything negative at all.

After rereading the documents she'd read a dozen times over in the past two hours, she closed the file with an annoyed huff. "This guy's been a public servant since I was in kindergarten. He cannot have an entirely clean record."

Special Agent Adrianna Rosseau shrugged noncommittally from the desk across from her. "As far as the media and the world are concerned, Edmund Greer is an upstanding Catholic citizen with the best interests of the public in mind as he makes every ruling."

"He's had seventeen mistresses in a thirty-year marriage," Alex reminded her partner. "That's neither upstanding nor Catholic of him."

"Hey, I completely agree with you. I'm not the one you need to be arguing with. Emma Hayes is." The Assistant U.S. Attorney they worked with frequently wasn't keen on infringing upon the Fourth Amendment rights of an American judge, even if said American judge was the prime suspect in his mistress's murder. "Unless we find a smoking gun, she's not going to take that warrant within a thousand feet of a federal judge."

"They didn't mention this nearly enough at Quantico," Alex muttered under her breath as she removed the phone on her desk from its cradle and began to dial.

"What's that?" Rosseau asked interestedly, continuing to flip through the information she'd been given.

"How awful it feels when you're losing." Alex inhaled deeply when elevator music began playing on the other end of the line. It wasn't much of a surprise that Hayes had put her on hold. When had the woman ever made her life easy?

"Well, of course they don't bring it up at Quantico. If they did, no one would stick around beyond orientation." Rosseau glanced up from the file she held and shook her head at the defeated look in her friend's eyes. "Parrish, there's really only two ways this is going to go. We'll either find enough to put him away for this, or we won't. Either way, there's nothing we can do about it right now, so you need to calm down before your blood pressure goes off the charts. Just looking at you right now is making me very worried for that tiny person you've gotten hanging out in there."

Alex sighed heavily, placing a hand on her protruding stomach. "He's very worried that Judge Greer's going to get away with this, too," she informed her friend. "He's been kicking like crazy since interrogation."

"Well, of course he's already worried about justice," Rosseau sighed amusedly. "He's got you and Booth for parents."

Alex snapped to attention when someone on the other end of the line uttered her name. "Yes, this is Special Agent Alexandra Booth. I need to speak to Counselor Hayes, please."

****************A&R****************

Ryan was climbing from behind the wheel of his truck when Alex pulled into the parking spot beside him. As always, he greeted her with a smile as she made her way towards him. Once she was close enough, he pulled her into his chest, pressing a kiss first to her lips and then to her forehead. For the first time since meeting Judge Greer earlier in the day, she felt completely and totally at peace.

Ryan insisted on fixing dinner, still concerned about her health after their last visit to the obstetrician. He whipped up a meal of chicken and pasta while she ranted about her day. It wasn't all that different from most Thursday nights in the Booth household.

"I feel like Hayes is giving him a free pass because he just so happens to be a government official," Alex finished after several minutes, accepting the glass of sparkling cider her husband extended in her direction with a grateful smile. "Thank you."

"In all honesty, babe, she probably is giving him a free pass because he's a government official," Ryan admitted as he plated their food. "It's something you're probably going to run into more than once in this line of work. Everybody is friends with everybody in the world of politics. Like it or not, the U.S. Attorney's Office is very involved in that world."

"Well, when it lets a murderer walk free, I don't like it at all," Alex informed him, accepting her plate with another smile. "Thank you for making dinner."

"Of course," Ryan replied easily, settling into the seat next to her with his own food and beverage. "Al, this is one case," he reminded her gently, correctly interpreting her silence and refusal to take the first bite as hopelessness. "You're good. You're very good. But you can't win them all. Nobody can. If they could, then there wouldn't be much need for us. All the bad guys would already be off the streets."

"You sound a lot like Rosseau," Alex informed him, finally cutting into her chicken.

"Well, I'm your husband, she's your partner. We both have your best interest at heart." Ryan sighed when she shot him an unimpressed look. "I know how you feel with this case, Al. I've had a few of them myself over the years. But the thing is that there's nothing you can do either way. If there's enough evidence for an arrest, you'll find it. If there's not, then…" He trailed off with a shrug. "Worrying about it isn't going to do anything but make me and your doctor worry right along with you."

"I wouldn't have taken on the case if I thought it'd stress me out enough to put him at risk, Ryan," Alex assured him, knowing his primary concerns. His mother had experienced more than a few issues during her pregnancy with Gracie, and the memories had stayed with him ever since, especially when she became pregnant herself. "Work is no longer my priority. He is."

"I know," Ryan exhaled slowly. "I just worry about you both, that's all."

"I know. It's because you're a good husband. A good father. A good man." She said each word definitively, as if none of them could be challenged. In her mind, they couldn't be. She'd not said a single lie. "But we're fine. Promise."

Ryan smiled over at her. "I'm holding you to that."

"Feel free to," she returned easily, finishing off the last of her pasta and pushing the dish away. She leaned her head against his shoulder with a content sigh. The day hadn't been the best, but the evening was making up for it all.

****************A&R****************

"Parrish!" Rosseau called out the moment Alex walked into the office on Friday morning. "I found our smoking gun."

Alex set her purse down on her desk, then turned fully towards her partner. "What?" she asked confusedly, one hand resting on her stomach as her son practiced his morning acrobatics. He was the child of special agents, after all.

"Hayes, she told us we needed a smoking gun to put Greer away without causing a media storm to crash down on this office," Rosseau reminded her patiently. "Well, I found our smoking gun." She shrugged when Alex shot her an incredulous look. "What? Celia had a date last night. I didn't sleep well. And you're pregnant. I sure wasn't going to ask you to stay up and hunt down clues that could've led to nothing. I still remember exactly what carrying a child is like, and it's freaking exhausting."

"Right," Alex said with an amused shake of her head. For such a pragmatic person, Rosseau sure could ramble when she wanted to. "What's this smoking gun you've uncovered?"

"Right. So, Greer met his wife in 1974, married her in 1977. It's been established in their autobiographies; that's all well and good. What is not acknowledged in those rather lengthy works is the affair he had in 1975 with Sophia Anderson, a student of his at Loyola." Rosseau tapped her pen against the screen. "In January 1976, Miss Anderson was delivered of a healthy, bouncing baby girl. Guess who that little girl came to bear a striking resemblance to as she grew up?"

"Her father," Alex breathed, staring at the woman's photograph with wide eyes. "Edmund Greer."

"Exactly." Rosseau glanced towards her with a smug smirk in place. "Do you happen to remember the name of the person in charge of this case? The one even Hayes has to answer to?"

"Amelia Anderson," Alex recalled easily. "His daughter's the person in charge of making sure he goes away for murder. That is…"

"That's not the biggest issue. Amelia Anderson provided his alibi, Alex. She said they were working a case late that night," Rosseau reminded her partner. "That was the only thing keeping us from getting probable cause for that warrant. And now…" She shrugged. "What judge is going to believe that Amelia Anderson was telling the truth that night when they find out that the man she was protecting is her father?"

"No one with any amount of intellect," Alex responded. "Which means we'll get our warrant."

"No," Rosseau replied, causing Alex to glance in her direction. "It means we already have our warrant." She held up the piece of paper triumphantly. "Let's go."

"Have I mentioned lately how much I love working with you?" Alex asked as she reached for her purse.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a great partner, too," Rosseau responded distractedly. "Grab a vest." She shook her head when Alex shot her a disbelieving look. "Listen, Parrish, I'm brave enough to take on a federal judge, not your husband if he finds out you went out into the field without a vest while carrying his child."

Alex shook her head. "You're both ridiculous," she muttered under her breath. Regardless of how she felt about it, she did as she told. Rosseau was right. There was someone more important to her than she was to herself that traveled with her twenty-four-seven at the moment. He was more than worth protecting.

It took them only fifteen minutes to find the gun used to kill Kathrine Harris in the Greer home. Watching Edmund Greer fold in interrogation was something Alex very much enjoyed. The man's smug smile had slipped the moment they'd showed up at his front door. It was slightly pathetic that it took a lawyer less than thirty minutes to fold when trapped in a small, dark room with two federal agents snapping questions at him, but she certainly wasn't going to complain. The earlier they processed his arrest, the less likely it was she would miss her flight to Orlando. While she was brave, she wasn't brave enough to look the wrath of Shelby Wyatt in the face, especially on her wedding day.

"You know how you said cases like these are the reason you regret being an agent?" Rosseau asked conversationally as they made their way from the interrogation room after taking Greer's confessional statement. "Bet you're pretty glad you stuck out for all those weeks at Quantico now, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Alex replied definitively. "Yeah, I am."

****************A&R****************

Waking up in Orlando was always a strange experience. They'd landed in the Floridian city well after midnight, which meant they'd immediately gone to their hotel and collapsed into bed. Now, it was seven o'clock in the morning, and they had a brunch planned with the wedding party.

"Why do we have to be at this thing?" Ryan grumbled, running a hand down his face as he watched her attempt to tame her unruly curls.

"Because I'm the matron of honor," Alex reminded him patiently. "And because they're our friends, and if we're not there, then the day may end in a murder-suicide. Caleb's entire family is going to be there, after all."

"Fine," he muttered, pressing a kiss to her hair as he made his way towards the bathroom. "But this is the only time I'm going to go to brunch to appease anyone other than you."

"That's fine by me," she called after him, shaking her head with an amused smile. It sometimes amazed her how much her husband, a fully-trained former Marine with a Bureau-issued badge, could act like a petulant child when forced to get out of bed before noon on a weekend.

The meal wasn't as awful as Alex had expected it to be. She'd worn a dress not capable of being torn apart by the Haas women – it was a black number, covered in colorful flowers and complete with a knee-length skirt that swished with every step – and matching pumps, her hair pulled back from her face into a ponytail. Despite her confidence, she'd held onto Ryan's hand as she entered and exited the premises. There was only so much balance that could be achieved by a woman six months pregnant in heels three inches high.

The rehearsal dinner was being hosted by Clayton and Claire Haas, which meant it was sure to be so polished that Alex wanted to pull her hair out. She slipped into her second outfit of the day regardless, a sleeveless, ankle-length black jumpsuit printed with different colored flowers. She wasn't concerned with appeasing anyone at that point. All she was concerned with was making sure her best friend was happy.

The look on Shelby's face as she walked into the restaurant after the rehearsal suggested she was very happy. She laughed at something Caleb murmured into her ear, shaking her head amusedly as she leaned further into him, and Alex had to bite back tears at the sight. It was so nice, after having seen everyone she loved so miserable for so long, to see two of those she was closest to so happy when in one another's presence. It was a beautiful thing to be witness to, and she wasn't going to forget that anytime soon.

Because Shelby enjoyed making sure Alex got use out of that degree from Berkeley, it was decided the brunette would give speeches at both the rehearsal dinner and the reception. She stood up after a childhood friend of Caleb's sat down, a genuine smile on her face as she accepted the microphone from the groom-to-be's older brother.

"I did not know until I found out these two were engaged that it was possible to be so lost in both disbelief and exhilaration at the same time." Both Shelby and Caleb chuckled lightly at that, so Alex continued on as planned. "Not all of you were there when they met at Quantico, so let me describe the experience for you. For the first few weeks of classes, walking into a room they were already in was extremely similar to, I don't know, walking into an active war zone. They could not stand each other. And then, when nobody was expecting it, that all changed.

Watching the two of them fall in love wasn't exactly peaceful. There were a lot of arguments, a lot of undecideds between the two of them. It took them a long time to realize that fighting doesn't mean something's wrong; it means you care enough to fix what might be. I think it takes most people a while to realize that. But once they did, they laid the foundation for what they have today. They've been building atop it ever since, and I know, without a doubt, that they'll continue to just that for many years to come.

Caleb and Shelby, you're two of the kindest, most deserving people I know. You're fiercely loyal, fiercely protective, fiercely loving. You fight for each other every day, even when the battle seems impossible. I know that, because I've been there to see you do it. And you're happier together. You're stronger together. You're better together.

"So," she concluded, holding up the champagne flute filled with water in her hand, "to Shelby and Caleb. May tomorrow be the first page of the very long love story your marriage is sure to be."

She glanced towards the blonde bride-to-be with a beaming smile, winking when she saw the tears gathered in her friend's eyes. She didn't call the special agent out on the tear tracks on her cheeks. How could she? Moisture was gathering in her eyes, as well.

"Please don't let me cry tomorrow," she muttered to Ryan as she settled back into her seat alongside him.

Her husband simply laughed. "I'll try my best."

****************A&R****************

It was a beautiful thing, watching Shelby and Caleb pledge their love to one another. Try as he might, Ryan hadn't been able to prevent Alex from crying. It'd been worse at the wedding than it was at the reception, but as she made her second toast to the couple in as many days, it was no surprise to anyone she was a blubbering mess. She was an amazing agent with a pragmatism that impressed many, but, at the end of the day, she was still Alex, and she cared and loved more deeply in five minutes than most people would if given five lifetimes. It was one of the first things that'd attracted Ryan to her on that plane, one of the first things to make her something more than a mark in the special agent's eyes. It was something he was immensely glad had stuck with her, even after all she'd endured. It was something he hoped would never change.

The couple danced to Andrew Belle's _In My Veins_ as the night began to wind down. Alex, so happy for her friends and yet so exhausted by the activities she'd participated in, settled into the chair next to her husband, her head falling automatically onto his shoulder. "I'm really glad this is where we all ended up," she murmured, smiling when he pressed a kiss against the top of her head.

"I'm really glad this is where we all ended up, too," he murmured back, his lips brushing against her hair. Nothing more needed to be said.


End file.
